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I have this nice B &S set of figured bubinga. I'm thinking about making a florentine cutaway grand auditorium with it. So, I'll need to bend a fairly tight bend in the cutaway section. How is bubinga to bend? Any comments or suggestions on bending bubinga?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I have only bent one set and it was not highly figured. Bent it by hand on a pipe. I do recall that I had to bend it pretty hot. It is very tough wood.

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Waddy

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Like Waddy I have only bent one set. It was hard. I used an iron set at high heat with a damp rag on the iron to keep from scorching the wood. Also hard to sand. That Bubinga is tough stuff.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I've bent only one bubinga set, but it was highly figured so probably at the difficult end of the spectrum. I used Super Soft and bent it on a hot pipe with the temperature turned up high: 6.5 out of 7 on the knob. Spritzed often with water. This set wanted to make facets rather than bend in smooth curves. It took a LOT of pressure with a small wood block in each hand pressing on opposite edges of the facets to get them to bend in the middle. The wood was very strong though and never even started to crack. Didn't scorch either. The sides were thicknessed to 0.078 to 0.080".

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I recently gave up on a set!! I concluded that the sides must be very thin and bent very hot. I would suggest super soft or the equivalent although it didn't seem to make much difference to me.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Hmmm... Sounds like I would be better off using this bubinga set for a non-cutaway. Jay that guitar is beautiful. I have heard of the faceting in figured bubinga that you referenced. Steve - did you mean that the supersoft didn't make much difference? Wow, that is some tough stuff...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

BTW - I just noticed that I broke 1000 posts... I guess I've been around a while.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I've got a guitar going right now that is bubinga, plan is for a Florentine cutaway on it..... I've got super soft II ready to go but from what I've read, Bubinga can be one of the hardest woods to bend.

And ya, sanding it is pretty tough and it doesn't plane well either, the figured stuff that is.


Hmmmmm, Jay's in Bothell, I should get him to come up to help me bend it

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Bubinga ain't so bad. Really. SSII. I bent some seriously figured bubinga from Shane, it went super fine. It is a dry wood. So keep it steamy. Take ur time.

Bubinga has lots of variation... I've had some with pomelle figure that bent easily and some with mottled figure that was a real bear but it made a nice guitar. Looks like you have some quartersawn with a lot of reversing grain... I'd bet a very tight bend will be tough to pull off if the sides match the back. Good luck.

I think the lack of wood oil can contribute to bending difficulty. Fine edge between steamy and sopping wet which can lead to cupping. A simple overnight SSII soak is enough to create the proper conditions. I do agree that slow but steady on the bend will give best results. I experienced cupping in one set and backed off of excessive hydration as a workaround. This wood is worth the effort.i would never try to bend it with a simple spritz... It's just too brittle

@SteveS >>>did you mean that the supersoft didn't make much difference?

Exactly. I first tried to hand bend without the use of SS and when it did not go well, I tried it with SS. I did not make much more progress. In hindsight I would go thinner and see what happens.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Road Trip! Actually, I make it up that way from time to time because my daughter is a student at Simon Fraser.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Cool.


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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

SS2 in my fox bender and it bent like a dream - this was from Shane's wildly figured stash...
I would not want to try and hand bend that stuff...

I both scorched and cracked a set, it can be tricky to bend.
Anyone want a lot of headplates?
Next set I used SS II. soaked overnight, and started by hand bending just to get the feel of it before finishing it properly in the bender (first time I used a pipe)
Needs a bit more time and temperature to start to "go" than other woods I've tried since.
Turned out fine. The sides were similar, with sap.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I'm currently building a guitar with Bubinga sides and back with a cuttaway. I bent the sides with steam. Here's a link I found that really helped me out I still hand to build molds but this steam bending worked really well as opposed to using a steam box.

http://www.core77.com/posts/35838/A-Bet ... lastic-Bag

I had to make some minor adjustments with a bending iron but it turned out pretty well. I'd say for the time spent building the forms to bend the sides and getting a steam machine it would have been just as easy to bend by hand. But if you plan on building more then take the time to build the molds.

I have bent many Bubinga sets. The grain pattern you posted isn't that hard. Water Fall is a pain. .075 thick water on untreated paper . I use a thermometer at the point of bend and a heat blanket
lower bout first at 240-250-F then the upper bout 275 F then the waist
take the heat up to 375 then hold at 250 F for about 15 min and let cool

should bend just fine.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thanks John, I was waiting for someone to mention what thickness they used. 0.075" sounds like a reasonable thickness overall. How about for the cutaway section? ...a little thinner?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I will say I bent some serious waterfall recently. John's schedule is good. Heat, moisture, SSII, patience. My sides were 0.1" btw. Guess I was lucky. I suppose in hind sight I should have gone a bit thinner. Maybe .09"

I have a set of Maroke that started to split on my bending iron. After reading all the praise of Super-Soft2 I ordered a bottle. Now, after reading the instructions, I see I'm supposed to keep it away from heat or open flames. I use a propane bottle to heat my aluminum bending tube. I don't have a heat blanket set up. Any suggestions?

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

yes

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

If you use the SS the way I've been using it, there's no free SS around when it comes time to bend the sides. I spray it on the sides until wet, let it soak in for 10 or 15 minutes, wipe off the excess, and then press the sides between paper towels overnight under a weight. When I take the sides out in the morning, they are pretty much dry. I bend on an electric hot pipe at high temp while spritzing water as needed. I don't see why your propane heated pipe would be a problem.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I was able to bend the bubinga alright. Thinned the cutaway portion down to about 0.065" and used SSII. I did find the bubinga to be rather chippy...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Thank you Jay. That was just the information I was looking for.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars